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Today, 55% of the world’s population lives in urban areas, a proportion that is expected to increase to 68% by 2050. In the face of rapidly rising urbanization, many governments have struggled to keep up with the demand for infrastructure and social services such as electricity, water and sanitation, transport, solid waste management, and health care.

Around the world, poverty is increasingly concentrated in countries and regions affected by fragility and conflict, which intensify already acute challenges to development. Fragility and conflict can range from persistent domestic or cross-border violence to vulnerability in the face of natural disasters.

In an OBA project, service delivery is contracted out to a third party, either a government or private sector entity, who assumes a portion of the project risk by providing pre-financing and then receives a subsidy to complement or replace user fees once outputs (such as solar home systems or connection of households to water supply systems) have been verified by an independent verification age

Urban transport systems are crucial to economic and social development, and are particularly important for connecting poor populations to jobs, education, and health services. As the developing world rapidly urbanizes, there is an opportunity to build safer, cleaner, and more inclusive transport systems.

Globally, around 663 million people lack access to safe drinking water and 2.4 billion lack access to improved sanitation, such as a toilet or latrine. Ensuring access to water and sanitation for all by 2030 is one of the top priorities of the Sustainable Development Goals.

Information and communication technologies can help reduce poverty, boost economic growth, and improve accountability and governance. GPRBA support in this sector has been focused on increasing access to telecommunications services in remote and sparsely populated areas areas where connection has been extremely limited. GPRBA has provided support in Mongolia and Indonesia in the past.

With rapid population growth and urbanization, municipal waste generation is expected to rise to 2.2 billion tonnes by 2025. One of the major obstacles to improving Solid Waste Management (SWM) in poor countries is the lack of sustainable financing.